Cherries, cashew nuts and other things

Friday:

In a break with tradition, Hannah had shreddies for breakfast. I naively thought they were just wheat with nothing added, but it turns out they've got sugar and other things in too. So they won't be making a terribly regular appearance on the breakfast table even if they make a nice change from cheerios and shredded wheat. Hannah certainly thought they made a nice change, she ate absolutely tons of them.

For lunch she had an organix gingerbread man, some saucy tomato noughts and crosses (corn crisps), a couple of breadsticks and some halved cherry tomatoes. I gave her the gingerbread man because she was creating as I was being slack and late with her lunch, it kept her going for long enough that I could grab the rest of the offerings.

Dinner was baked beans - served on a spoon, which wasn't as messy as you might have thought - plus some halved cherries and a banana. Hannah wasn't really sure what to make of the cherries, she sucked at them a bit but didn't really eat much of them. Cherry juice dribbled down her chin and all over the bib, it all looked quite gory!

Saturday:

Breakfast today was shreddies again, and again they were very well received. For lunch Hannah ate a corn thin with pureed avocado spread on it, a breadstick, some saucy tomato noughts and crosses, an apple and raspberry cereal bar, a banana and a slice of melon. She went at the avocado covered corn thin with gusto, although most of the topping seemed to end up on her face rather than in her belly. She did attempt to use the banana and cereal bar to wipe it off again, with mixed success :o) the flannel at the end of the meal did a much better job!

For dinner, Neil gave her some halved cherry tomatoes, a few cashew nuts, a fromage frais, some halved cherries, a slice of bread with cream cheese. The tomatoes came out of the fridge, and were a bit cold for Hannah to start with, but she went back to them once she'd eaten the bread and cream cheese and sucked all the insides out plus ate some of the flesh. She got on pretty well with the cashew nuts, too - the first time she's tried them. She seemed to really like biting into them and hearing them crunch - new teeth coming in useful! Naturally she ate the entire fromage frais, and was more enthusiastic about the cherries today than she was yesterday.

Much better today

As you can see from the picture above, Hannah's back on her food pretty much, and tucked into a couple of slices of toast first thing. One had marmite on, the other was raspberry jam.

Lunch took place while we were out and about, and was a cream cheese and avocado sandwich, a breadstick, and an organix flapjack. Hannah ate most of everything, leaving maybe a quarter of the sandwich and not much at all of the flapjack or breadstick.

For dinner there was pesto tortelloni, which I gave her covered in cream cheese and tomato puree sauce with a slice of melon for pudding. All of the melon got eaten, but not much at all of the pasta went down.

Hannah did drink an entire sippy cup full of water with her dinner, and at least half a sippy cup full at lunchtime - I think because she's still full of cold so must be losing a fair amount of water through her runny nose and having to breathe through her mouth.

Yet another cold, argh

Well Hannah has got *another* stinking cold, and decided it was time to get up for the day at 4.30am today. So excuse me if I'm not that coherent!

Breakfast today was two slices of toast with raspberry jam, as I'll be limiting her dairy intake for a few days while we ride out this cold. She enjoyed the change and ate a fair amount of the toast.

Lunch was a banana, an organix flapjack, a fromage frais and some organix crispy rings. She ate very little of it though - perhaps a quarter of the banana, two of the crispy rings, and only a third of the fromage frais, which is not at all like Hannah. She did manage most of the flapjack though, along with a bit of water out of her sippy cup.

For dinner I gave her the rest of the crispy rings, a corn thin with blitzed avocado spread on it, and the rest of lunchtime's fromage frais - which she did finish this time. She also drank a lot of water, and nearly brained the cat by chucking her sippy cup over the side of the high chair tray. I don't think the cat will choose to sit there waiting for scraps again!

Pasta bake v cauliflower cheese

Hannah has got more teeth, the two top middle ones have now turned up, a week or two after the ones immediately outside them. So with six teeth to use on her food, we've definitely noticed she's getting better at biting - us as well as the food!

Breakfast has been cranberry wheats (Friday) and shredded wheat bitesize (Saturday). She ate an absolutely HUGE amount yesterday - about the same as I'd eat, if not even more. I couldn't believe she'd finished the bowlful, but there was very little left behind to find in the clean up.

Her lunches have been cauliflower cheese and pasta bake. The cauliflower cheese was fairly successul - much more so that last time I tried her with it. It was very messy, but I'll definitely make it for her again. She even ate quite a bit of the cauliflower, which in the past she hasn't really seemed very interested in. The pasta bake wasn't so successful, probably on account of the millions of shredded wheat she'd filled up on at breakfast. The fromage frais that followed it though was well received - enthusiastic shrieks in between sucking the spoon clean is always a sign.

As you can see, she's keen on the cauli (this time):

But what's going on outside is much more interesting (high wind making a for sale sign flip to and fro):


...but even that gets boring after a while!:

For dinner, on Friday Hannah ate a cream cheese and avocado sandwich followed by a fromage frais. She did pretty well with the sandwich - although she pulled the bread apart to get at the filling better - but didn't eat all of the avocado, prefering to pull it out and cast it aside. I'd slightly mashed half an avocado so that I could spread it, I think in future I'd slice it instead so that she can pick it up better if she deconstructs the sandwich.

Yesterday she had half a baked potato, with the inside scooped out and mixed with a little cream cheese, plus a corn thin also with cream cheese. For pudding she ate a portion of chocolate flavoured angel delight. I have never seen her so excited about food, I don't think! The squeals and flailing legs and arms were some indication of what she thought of it :o) Neil was feeding her, and he noticed that she seemed to be drinking a lot of water during the process too, she'd have a mouthful or two of the angel delight and then have a bit of water in between, and she carried on doing this the whole time.

Cheerios, couscous and corn thins

In a shock move, Hannah didn't have just cheerios for her breakfast today. Yes, it's true! She ate some of the cheerios, but seemed to be hungry still so we gave her a few bits of shredded wheat fruitful. She really liked them, and concentrated on those rather than the cheerios left on her tray. So perhaps we'll be branching out from the relentless diet of cheerios, who knows?!

For lunch she tried something new, couscous. It was mixed with some chopped avocado, peas, and a serving of lentil pate to try and make it more sticky. She liked the taste and texture of it, but had considerable trouble getting it into her mouth. We eventually reverted to loading a spoon for her, which was somewhat more successful but she still didn't eat a huge amount.

Dinner was a couple of corn thins spread with lentil pate, a rusk, and half a banana. She ate the lot, I've never seen her eat so much of it and we were really surprised not to find huge chunks of it in her lap when we cleaned her up. In fact when she'd finished all of that, she was busily bashing her hands on the tray demanding more food, so we topped her up with a raspberry fromage frais as well - which she ate all of again.

The upshot of a huge dinner was that she didn't really want all of her feed before bed, at least not all at once - I split it into two, as it was expressed with medised added so I wanted to get it down her! Hannah's also not asking for feeds during the day so regularly either, and for the moment I'm going with the flow. She's still getting all four feeds, but not at regular times any more.

Just Peachy

Cheerios for breakfast again today, followed by a lunch of corn thins with cream cheese and lentil pate, some cucumber fingers, and some tinned peach slices. I only gave her three peach slices to start with, but rapidly had to fetch more to stop her banging her fists on the tray repeatedly. She also had a fair amount of water to drink, out of her sippy cup.

Hannah's getting lots better at using her sippy cup, and I usually leave it on the corner of her tray during a meal now rather than give it to her once she's finished eating or if she seems to need it. She doesn't even fling it on the floor after she's finished with it now, which has to be a step forward! I've also noticed that she's much more aware of dropping things, for example if something ends up on her lap she will try to pick it up herself (assuming she wants it, anyway). It makes the clean-up operation slightly easier, as there's fewer lumps of food to catch.

Her tea today was a hard boiled egg, some slices of avocado, and a slice of toast with cream cheese and avocado spread on it, plus a rusk and more water to drink. She did her normal trick with the toast, mainly sucking the topping off and leaving the toast. It was the first time I've given her boiled egg, although she's had egg before in other things, and to be honest she wasn't very impressed with it, not much of it got eaten.

Oh, and one last thing that I noticed Hannah doing today: when food falls out of her mouth, she doesn't always use her hands to push it back in. Sometimes, she leans forward as if she's trying to catch it up and overtake it. I haven't noticed that technique having much success so far though!

First raisins

Not much to report today really. Hannah had cheerios for breakfast again today (and so did I, turns out they taste quite nice!).

For lunch I cooked her some mushroom and ricotta tortellini, and she followed it with half a banana. I think she ate more of the pasta today than she managed last night, although she still mainly sucked the filling out and left the pasta itself.

Tea was a couple of oatcakes, one with cream cheese and one with lentil pate on, plus some cherry tomatoes, slices of avocado, and some raisins. It was the first time she's tried raisins, and even though they were pretty small she managed to get them down her really well. I did find a couple that escaped down her bib in the clean up operation, but that was all.

Vegeballs and other things

Breakfast: cheerios
Lunch: vegeballs in tomato sauce and half a rusk

Tea: lincolnshire sausage, avocado, rice cake with boursin, half a rusk and some grapes

Verdict:

Breakfast went down fairly well as usual. Lunch was a success too, which was good as it was the first time Hannah had tried vegeballs (and the first time I'd tried making them, I've put the recipe here). They didn't hold up too well to pressure as she picked them up, and disintegrated more than I thought they would, but most still got eaten. The tomato sauce wasn't too messy either, probably because we didn't actually give her most of it, just the bit that the vegeballs were coated with.

Her tea went down well too, she seemed to prefer the sausage but happily munched away at everything she had. She also managed the grapes really well too, and seemed much more confident picking them up than even yesterday. Some pieces she managed to suck the innards out of (I had cut them in half for her), leaving the skin.

We've noticed in the past few days that she doesn't really chuck food over the side of her high chair any more. Not sure when this started, but we're definitely not having to pick so much up. There's still the food that goes down onto her lap, along her legs, and onto the floor, but not nearly so much.

And no dream feed again last night, but she woke up at 6.10am today wanting a feed. I fed her one side, then put her back to bed. She slept until 8am when she woke wanting her breakfast, but when I fed her she only wanted one side, so her early feed was spread out over two hours! Hopefully we've managed to get enough down her today that she'll sleep longer tonight, but at least I got a bit of a Sunday lie in... :oD

She had seconds!

Hannah ate loads today, I can't believe it!

Breakfast was two slices of toast, one with raspberry jam and one with blackcurrant jam. Once again Hannah ate none of the toast but the butter and jam was entirely sucked off. I'm not sure that it's good for anyone to survive on butter and jam but Hannah seems to be doing OK so far.

For lunch she had a couple of rice cakes with lentil pate, plus half an avocado cut into fingers, and some emmental cheese. She did really well with the rice cakes today, and the cheese, but the avocado wasn't as ripe as I thought it was so she didn't eat as much of that. Pudding was a rusk and some mandarin segments. Perhaps unsurprisingly after her first try of them, Hannah ignored the mandarin completely other than throwing one or two bits onto the floor. The rusk, however, was completely eaten, for the first time ever! I felt so proud of her it was ridiculous :o) And I gave her another half a rusk, and that all got eaten too!

I was expecting her breastfeed before tea to be on the short side, but it wasn't noticeably different from normal, which surprised me. Tea itself was a breadstick, some swede mash, and some sweet potato mashed up. She liked all of it but had some difficulties with the mash, I think it wasn't solid enough for her really.

There are no photos today, as we've had workmen in fixing a leaky pipe so it's all been a bit chaotic. The good news is that the pipe is fixed and the water is back on though, hurrah!

I was wondering, by the way, about this whole baby led weaning thing. It seems that people doing BLW are more likely than other people to be using cloth nappies. I don't know how true that is, it's just an impression from talking to other people doing something similar - do let me know if it's true or not, leave a comment below.

For the record, we currently favour Tots Bots Bamboozles and Original cotton, with Motherease Airflow wraps in the day and Tots fleece wraps overnight. I can tell that this weaning lark is working, we've had to move Hannah up into the size 2s in the past few weeks, so her cousin George will be borrowing the size 1 nappies and wraps.

Breakfast today was toast, half served with raspberry jam the other hand served with blackcurrant jam. She didn't eat a great deal of toast but the jam all disappeared - definitely a fan of jam!

Lunch was a home made veggie sausage plait and avocado. This was her first taste of sausage plait and she seemed to prefer the avocado, which is an old favourite, but the sausage did get some attention towards the end so we'll give that another go in the future. Pudding was 4 halves of apricot and two dried apple rings. The apple rings seemed to be the preferred choice today.

Dinner was pasta tubes with tomato and mascarpone sauce, the same as yesterday. And like yesterday she cheerfully sucked off all the sauce and left most of the bare pasta.

We're seeing signs that she's eating more solid food as half the breastfeeds she's had today have been significantly shorter than normal with no signs that she's still hungry - she's been quite cheerful and playful today. She's also taken less of the dream feed (11pm) the last few days, at least on the days when she's had 3 solid meals - we offer 200ml but she's only taking between 100 and 140ml. Previously she's always finished the lot.

Roast dinner

Today we had another family breakfast, which was really nice. We all sat round eating chopped bits of fruit, and Neil and I also had yogurt and coffee (I don't think Hannah should have coffee yet, although by the way she tries to nick mine, she disagrees!). There was fresh pineapple, melon, and mango all round, and we had grapefruit too but didn't give Hannah any.

Lunch was pitta bread, toasted and filled with grated cheddar which I pinged in the microwave so it had melted, an oatcake with butter and marmite on, some tomato and boursin tart, then there were more pieces of fruit for pudding.

The tomato and boursin tart was a surprise hit, I wasn't actually going to give her any of it but there was some leftovers in the fridge so I thought it'd be worth a try. It's just a block of puff pastry rolled out and covered with boursin mixed with creme fraiche and topped with sliced tomatoes. Cook for about 40 minutes at gas 6 or thereabouts, nice and easy and went down really well. Hannah coped really well with the pastry, I had thought that she might struggle with it as it was fairly flaky. Next time I make it I think I'll try doing individual size tarts, rather than one big one.

Obviously being Sunday what could I serve her for dinner but a roast? Well, sort of. She had her first Quorn fillet, accompanied by some carrot and parsnip batons, and an avocado that was in the cupboard and needed eating. She followed this up with half a rusk - it would have been a whole one, but Neil ate half of it. Again it all went down rather well, not bad for so many new tastes in one day.

Toast with added toast

Today's meals pretty much all consisted of toast, but the good news is that we went to the supermarket too, so tomorrow should have a bit more variety.

Breakfast was a slice of toast cut into four pieces. Two were spread with marmite, the other two had blackcurrant jam on. I hadn't given her blackcurrant jam, I thought she wouldn't like it because it's quite tart, but Neil was in charge at breakfast and she devoured it! Once the jam had been seen off, the marmite got a look in too, and actually most of the slice was eaten.

Lunch was more toast, this time with emmental cheese on, along with an avocado cut into chunks. Cheese on toast worked fairly well, at least until the toast and the cheese parted company. Hannah certainlyseemed to like it, at any rate. The avocado was rather ripe and disintegrated a bit while she was trying to get it into her mouth, but on the whole she managed fairly well.

I think we'll move up to three meals a day some time this week, so any suggestions on what Hannah might like for her meals would be very welcome!

Banana on toast a hit!

Fairly standard day today really, nothing much exciting to report. Two slices of toast for breakfast, one with cream cheese on, the other with half a mashed banana spread on it.

The banana on toast was a hit, most of it was sucked off in fairly short order. Hannah's also now properly chewing her food, albeit with gums not teeth, not sure exactly when this started, but we've been noticing it more over the past few days.

For lunch she had a rice cake with pate (again - she'll be eating that pate for weeks, there's loads of it!), an avocado cut into BLW-friendly pieces, the other half of the breakfast banana, and a slice of melon. There's some pasta sauce sat in the fridge for her to eat at some point, will try and introduce pasta tomorrow I think...

Cream cheese again!

Hannah had toast for breakfast this morning again, as I still haven't been shopping - that should be sorted out this afternoon though, so perhaps the menu will get more exciting soon. Half of her toast was spread with cream cheese, the other half was cream cheese and raspberry jam. If you've never tried that combo before, it's gorgeous, in fact so much so that I nicked a quarter of a slice of toast from her, poor baby.

For lunch she had the last bits of courgette, along with a rice cake cut into fingers and spread with cream cheese and avocado. It all went down quite well, the discarded mush wasn't very plentiful so I can only assume that a fair amount actually went down.

Which reminds me. Yesterday for the first time Hannah didn't breastfeed very well. She fed as normal first thing, then had less than 10 minutes at each feed until her before bed feed at about 6.30pm and her dream feed at about 11pm which again were normal. One feed was a whole three minutes long. I'm putting it down to having eaten more than normal, so filled herself up on solids but I'm keeping an eye on things - so far today is much more normal, so perhaps the strike has been called off.

Cream cheese face pack

Apparently avocado and jam make a good combination of flavours - at least Hannah thought so judging by the way she was shoving multiple pieces of toast into her mouth at breakfast today.

Lunch was courgette cooked in butter (in the microwave), a rice cake spread with cream cheese, and a tomato that I skinned and cut into quarters. She liked the tomato, although was suspicious of it to start with. Once she got over that though, she took each piece in turn, sucked all the seeds out of the middle and nochalently dropped the flesh over the side of the high chair tray onto the floor. The cream cheese off the rice cake ended up mostly as a face pack (again), and the courgette was gummed to death and the stringy bits discarded. Sadly I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get a picture of her wearing the cream cheese, she wiped most of it off again with some courgette.

I think we'll be getting the bath out again later today...

Update: Hannah woke up just before we had lunch, so ended up joining us and ate two bits of mushroom and emmental ravioli with creme fraiche and red pesto topping. Not quite what I had in mind as her intro to pasta, but never mind!

Poor man's guacamole

I made Hannah some poor man's guacamole for lunch today - just blended an avocado into a paste and spread it on tw0 rice cakes, accompanied by some cucumber chips. It turns out that you can cut rice cakes into fingers really easily with a sharp knife, so that made things much easier.


Lunch was fairly messy, Hannah sucked the avocado off each piece of rice cake. Well apart from the bits that she smeared on her face and the high chair, that is. I reapplied avocado to the rice cake pieces several times, and there's still plenty of it left for tomorrow.


Breakfast was toast with butter, jam and marmite again - not all on the same slice though! And for Rog, giving her marmite does not consistute child abuse I'm sure :oD I do need to find some alternative breakfast items though, not least because we've run out of wholemeal bread.

First taste of avocado

Hurrah for painting aprons, the postman brought us two just as I was getting Hannah into her high chair for lunch - how's that for good timing?! I can confirm that it kept her clothes clean and dry and was very easy to wipe clean, And there's plenty of room to grow, as technically it's for ages 2-3 years!

Anyway, on to lunch. A first taste of avocado, accompanied by some banana, was the main course today, and there was plum for pudding. The avocado was a bit slippy so hard to pick up at first, but Hannah is persistent and conquered it in the end. I'm not sure what she made of it, there wasn't much reaction to it at all.

The plum went down as well today as it did yesterday, except that today she managed to chew off a small chunk of it and made herself gag slightly, since I think she was still sucking at the main bit while it was in her mouth. Bit scary to watch, but she managed to spit out the offending piece without any intervention from me (which was easier said than done, I wanted to leap in and take it off her straight away). Shortly after that she started being much more interested in eating her thumb than the food, so I took that as a sign and put her to bed for a nap :o)

Hopefully we'll get some pics of the new bib in action tomorrow.